Activision

"We need to interact with customers in the ways that work best for them."

—Tim RondeauSenior Director, Customer Care

Activision builds closer connections with the Call of Duty community

Activision is behind some of the most popular games of the past 30 years—from Pitfall!® for the Atari 2600 to Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty, and Skylanders™ for today. In fact, the company’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 3 was the biggest entertainment launch of all time—with sales of more than $400 million in North America and the UK in the first 24 hours.*

It's not just sales that are important to Activision. Building relationships with customers is also a priority. Alongside Modern Warfare 3, Activision launched an online platform, Call of Duty Elite, with free and paid subscription-based content and features. Call of Duty Elite enhances the Call of Duty franchise’s multiplayer experience and delivers a new level of engagement that brings customers together.

Activision also views its customer service operations as a chance to get closer to the gaming community. “We love talking to gamers, engaging with gamers, and solving their problems,” says Rondeau. “We’re using Salesforce so we can interact with our customers in ways that work for them—in addition to taking phone calls, it’s important to expand our communication with our gamers on the Web or through Facebook and Twitter.”

In the first year after implementing Service Cloud, Activision reports a dramatically changed channel mix. Previously, half of customers experiencing issues used online self service, and the other half spoke with Activition reps over the phone. Today 82 percent of customers reporting issues use online self service and ten percent contact the company via social channels—leaving only eight percent that speak to reps by telephone. "It's an incredible change," says Rondeau. "We're reducing costs and increasing satisfaction at the same time."

Taking customer support operations to the next level

If an agent can’t answer a question right away, that question is automatically exposed to all of the customer support experts via Chatter. Rondeau explains, “We believe that if problems are ‘swarmed’ then we can resolve them quickly, and ultimately when games are patched or updated, the changes are based on real problems reported by the community.”

"Salesforce is helping us build a better gaming experience."

*Estimated sell through according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information